Detective Dirk Nickel couldn't care less about clowns, but his is a city without laughs where clowns are a dying breed.Then, one day Nickel is framed - branded a 'chuckler' - and the heat is on. Can Nickel uncover who framed him in time, maybe even bring down the city-wide conspiracy against clowns in the bargain... or will the last laugh be on him?Featuring gripping Independent authors from around the world, FUSION is the first collection of short works published by Breakwater Harbor Books. Contributing heart-pumping tales of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Crime are seven stories that will thrill and rivet you. Authors from across a wide variety of genres, Dee Harrison, Ivan Amberlake, Claire C. Riley, Scott J. Toney, Mindy Haig, Cara Goldthorpe and C.M.T. Stibbe. The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale – 'and you thought it was safe to look in the mirror?'Diary of the Gone - Without a girlfriend, bullied by the Principal’s son, and haunted by the dead, Callum Blackwell thinks his life can’t get any worse. But he’s wrong.Life Ever After. Nina's Story: Part one. – When the dead begin to rise, it's time to put your differences aside and run!NovaFall – When the Meteor falls, the essences will come, forging flesh and planetary souls as one.Cybilla. – To claim his Muse, one man must find the gate between the mortal and the immortal worlds.Capturing Perfection – An artist's tale of love, loss and beauty in Renaissance MilanUntil The Ninth Hour – Until a man loses his daughter to a serial killer, until he loses his best friend, until he is down on his luck, Darryl Williams must put all thoughts of retaliation out of his mind.An excerpt from Dee Harrison’s The Sliver of Abilon – A Mirrorsmith Tale Junah Venmark, Master Mirrorsmith, exited the wayportal directly into the seaweed stench of Abilon. The foul odour tickled the back of his throat and he gagged on a rise of bile. Mirrorsmith Guild protocol demanded that he preview his destination before he arrived but it could not prepare him for an assault on his other senses. He vomited onto the trackway, just thankful that there was no-one to witness his most pitiful entrance ever. He loathed the smell of mouldy greens – it stirred up too many reminders of his wretched childhood in the back alleys of Varna, largest city on his homeworld of Vargo – but this was kabbige soup intensified tenfold. When his heaving subsided, Junah sank down onto his rump, trying to ignore the early evening dew which was soaking into his leggings. He pulled a kerchief from his belt-purse, to wipe the spittle from his lips, and cursed this ill-favoured world. Sissik, his wail, chittered and scurried around him like a silver-furred cyclone, mewing her distress. Junah winced when she skipped onto his tender stomach, the better to peer into his face with her large, prosimian eyes. He ran a finger down her spine and she slowly relaxed beneath his touch. Junah ill? She sent. No, I’m fine, Little One he reassured her. He grimaced. The smell caught me out, that’s all. Sissik wrinkled her own nose. Nasty, nasty stink, she concurred. Junah delved into his purse a further time and extracted a couple of lozenges from a packet. A few chews later and he could smell nothing. “Next time I’ll take ‘em before I get here,” he promised out loud. “Not that there’ll be a next time!” Junah clambered to his feet and peeled the sodden fabric from his buttocks. Sissik took her accustomed place on his shoulders, hiding beneath his long, dark hair and curled around his neck like a fur collar. Wails were native to all the worlds of the Regium, even the undeveloped ones like Abilon. Some wails, the silver-furred ones like Sissik, were prized for their ability to generate the acoustic frequencies that Mirrorsmiths depended upon. Others, the plumper, browner ones, made good eating. Whenever Sissik irritated him, which was often, Junah threatened to dye her coat russet. Now, however, she was quiescent, understanding that it was time for work.

One day, Draxar and Gracie Cura decided to try for one last child. What they hatched is a male they named Khayaddi Khospir. They decided to raise this child themselves, instead of a foreign crown. They really did this because they had to hide him and they did successfully for many years until he came of age and decided that did until he came of age and wanted to face them himself.One day, Draxar and Gracie Cura decided to try for one last child. What they hatched is a male they named Khayaddi Khospir. They decided to raise this child different from the others by raising him themselves, instead of a foreign crown. They really did this because they had to hide him from that crown and his siblings and they did successfully for many years until he came of age and decided that he wanted to face them himself.

Take two half-wit and whiskey-soaked moonshiners, add a mean old lady, gangsters, a fiery comet and flesh-eating Zombies and you have the ingredients for a besotted and morbidly skewed version of the events leading up to the Great Chicago Fire. The cow had nothing to do with it!

Benny figures out some puzzling events in a department store.

Stacey excels in her first math meet with the Mathletes, but when her father gets tickets to a huge rock concert on the same night as the Mathletes championship, Stacey has a tricky problem to solve.

A tale of rugby, puddings and murder.Ingredients: 1 handful of illegal drugs, 1 twelve-inch chef's knife, 1 blood-stained handkerchief, 6 rugby forwards and half a motorbike.When stirred by Lannie Herron, a young chef on the run, these make a deadly mixture. One of the players at the rugby club where she works may be a killer - but which one?A tale of rugby, puddings and murder.Ingredients: 1 handful of illegal drugs, 1 twelve-inch chef's knife, 1 blood-stained handkerchief, 6 rugby forwards and half a motorbike.When well stirred by Lannie Herron, a young chef on the run, these make a deadly mixture. One of the players at the rugby club where she's found refuge may be a killer - but which one?.

Betty and Sam are the luckiest System Searchers in the universe! After months of cataloguing solar systems, they discover the very first Earth-normal planet! But as they ponder oddities in the native species and the planet, they find not one, but two comets are about to hit their paradise! And it'll be an Extinction Level Event! What can they do? What will they do? And can they do it in time?Betty and Sam are the luckiest System Searchers in the universe! After months of cataloguing solar systems, they discover the very first Earth-normal planet! But as they ponder oddities in the native species as well as the planet itself, they find not one, but two comets are about to hit their paradise! And it'll be an Extinction Level Event! What can they do? What will they do? And can they do it in time? Join Betty, Sam and Charlie, the ship's computer, as they race against the clock to save this pristine world from certain distruction! Science fiction adventure at its best!

England, 1307. . .Templar Knight Galeren de Massard is sent to investigate an incident where a nun claims to have been attacked by "a man who became a wolf." When Galeren meets Catherine, he instinctively knows that her attacker was Esquin de Floyran and that his return is dangerous for the increasingly unpopular Templar Order. A supernatural tale revolving around the fall of the Templars.England, 1307 . . .Templar Knight Galeren de Massard is sent to investigate an incident where a nun claims to have been attacked by "a man who became a wolf." When Galeren meets Catherine, he instinctively knows that her attacker was Esquin de Floyran, an old foe, and that his return is dangerous for the increasingly unpopular Templar Order. Out for revenge, De Floyran has betrayed his brotherhood's secret to the French King who has long sought to discredit the Templars. When he discovers the truth of their nature, he vows to destroy the Order and have the Knights burned to the last. When hundreds of Templars are arrested in France and Catherine is taken by De Floyran, Galeren resolves to rescue her and save as many of his brethren as he can. Alone, he journeys to France and into the heart of danger to face his enemy and risk everything to save his race from destruction.

Sometimes life looks to be really awful and we seek a little relief by walking and thinking. This man died being transported to Australia but now he knows something and wants to share it…Harrhein is a kingdom in a fantasy world, very much like earth but set five hundred years in the past. There are constant incursions by tribesmen and raiders from the north and east, and Andy is a soldier with the elite Royal Pathfinders. He has taken a spear through the thigh and his presence in the armoury is good for the Kingdom, when there is an infiltrator. An ordinary soldier would probably not even notice the presence of the strange being, let alone catch it.Harrhein is based on a mixture of European countries and this is a story about soldiers, from a time when professional soldiers were beginning to evolve, but the majority were still bound to their lord. The author has clearly drawn on his own experiences to give authenticity to the military angle.

Even though the chance of a candidate like me getting elected President is remote, just thinking about the possibility is frightening.Everyone thinks that the Flying Saucers are stored at Area-51 in Nevada. But that isn't true. They are actually someplace else and when a curious Airman steals a piece, he discovers just how the aliens were able to ignore the limits of the Speed of light.How this man uses the device to make money is the gist of the story.

Chapter One of the serial, Keeping It In The Middle, an equestrian love story.Savannah "Van" Travis wants her life to be simple and uncomplicated, but her best friend, a handsome new riding patron, and the memory of an abusive ex just won't let that happen. Gallop headlong into the fast paced world of polo in this sweet little love story about second chances and first loves.The defiance, a small fast cargo ship in which Captain Anker runs his galactic salvage business. Anker and the crew are on their way back from some time off when they discover an abandoned lost space liner from the golden age of space exploration. The Golden sun is huge and beautiful an example of the opulence of early space exploration.This will not be an easy job though, something is just not right on board the golden sun.

Middle–aged hipster Hammerhead Hirsch, The Pugilist Poet and Boardwalk Balladeer of limited Beat Era fame, struggles to raise his kid Scrap on his own. Ten years in the life of father, son, and dogs. First appeared in New South.In this epistolary tale, middle–aged hipster Hammerhead Hirsch, The Pugilist Poet and Boardwalk Balladeer of limited Beat Era fame, struggles to raise his kid Scrap on his own. Ten years in the life of a father, son, and dogs. First appeared in New South.

The rapture has happened. The believers are gone and the rest of us are stuck here. Chaos reigns and many die, then Lucifer shows up. The devil introduces a game where people must survive in a giant arena all while a soul eating demon hunts them.Epic-scale warfare, genocide, false flag attacks, and political intrigue sizzle the pages of this action thriller in a fantasy fiction setting replete with historical allegories.The Sodorfians and Dachwaldians love each other dearly. The way a cat loves a bath. The way a lion loves a hyena. The way a rattler loves to have its tail pulled.They thought they ironed out their differences during their last all-out war, but disturbing events are about to make that look like a lover's quarrel. When the Dachwaldians discover nearly all the crops in their country have been deliberately poisoned just days before harvest, they realize it's time to get rid of the Sodorfians once and for all. When the Sodorfians discover the remains of several hundred of their brave soldiers looking like they took a dive into a wood chipper, they believe a thank-you note is in order, one that must be hand-delivered by a one-hundred-thousand-man army. But the Dachwaldians have a trick or three up their sleeve that they feel will teach the Sodorfians victory isn't won by superior numbers alone.As these two lovebirds prepare for their encounter, they realize only one can walk away, as one will play the role of the female praying mantis and consume the other like a tasty morsel.Neither side realizes a puppet master sits behind the scenes, provoking each side to action against the other like a director of a well-rehearsed group of actors. A wild card sits uneasily in the puppet master's prison, as anxious to escape as the warden is to get rid of him. But a prophecy tells him he can't. Not until the play finishes.

The Great Biomech War left millions dead, colonies burned, and cities turned to ash. Millions continue to endure in the harshest of conditions. The Alliance attempts to restore order, yet already new enemies have begun to strike at will, encouraged by their weakness. Border planets succumb to the raids of warlords, and many doubt how long the peace will last, after it was won at such cost.Lords of War is the first novel in the epic new ‘Mercenaries’ series that chronicles the violent struggles of the sprawling Centauri Alliance.The Great Biomech War left millions dead, colonies burned, and cities turned to ash. Millions continue to endure in the harshest of conditions. The Alliance attempts to restore order, yet already new enemies have begun to strike at will, encouraged by their weakness. Border planets succumb to the raids of warlords, and many doubt how long the peace will last, after it was won at such cost. Spartan is a living legend, a veteran of the Alliance Marine Corps, and the victor of a multitude of military campaigns. He is both loved and reviled by friend and foe alike, and now lives out on the fringes of the Alliance. He has fought for money, for his people and for the very survival of his species, and lost everything in the process. But when two of his closest friends are captured supplying weapons to the desperate Byotai settlers of Karnak, the fight becomes personal.Since the end of the war, Spartan and his friends have worked to create an elite fighting force based at Taxxu, for use by the Alliance. Using the latest high-energy weapons, armoured fighting suits and a prototype Confederate-class warship, it will be a force unlike any the Alliance has seen before. Spartan will use this and every other asset at his disposal to save his friends. Nothing, not even the entire might of the invading Anicinàbe clans and their fearsome clan leaders, can stop him, even if it means starting his own private war.Lords of War is a futuristic military sci-fi adventure that continues to expand the vast universe of the Star Crusades series. Essential and unmissable reading for enthusiasts of the Military sci-fi genre.

When worlds collide, babies die. Not for the faint of heart.Book Two - Ill WindThe Witch is dead. Or did you simply not recognize her?The consequences of book one, The Assets of Techview, play out in a new setting: the colony of New Berlyn, itself a domed city, a younger and brasher version of its sister city of Techview.Cynnamon, bonded to Transom Industries, has no choice in this return to her childhood home, it was part of a promise she made, a barter to save her friends. She must complete one assignment before she can return, but what is it?Miriam, now a full citizen is thus free of her corporate bonds finds herself instead chained to a sociopath by the strange viral colony which lives and grows inside her. And which she helped to create.Annabelle comes to New Berlyn of her own free will, determined to find a missing member of the Seven Sisters Sanctuary, dead or alive. With few clues to start, can Ann succeed or might she also disappear?New Berlyn welcomes them and any whom it can ruthlessly use in its frantic, desperate rush for power and fame, a desire to be the brightest jewel in Las Joyas.

After hearing the disappearance of the ship Harmony in the Bermuda triangle Jack Green set out on an incredible journey to Bermuda triangle in search for its underlying secrets. Through the interdimensional portal Jack Green enter into a whole new world where survival is very difficult. Meanwhile the aliens disguised in human form are planning something very naughty.After hearing the disappearance of the ship Harmony in the Bermuda triangle Jack Green set out on an incredible journey to Bermuda triangle in search for its underlying secrets. Through the interdimensional portal Jack Green enter into a whole new world where survival is very difficult. Meanwhile the aliens disguised in human form are planning something very naughty. Is human on earth actually humans. The ground breaking, horror story like you never experienced before.

The World Humanitarian Society's Plans for population control have just begun. And the zombies, equipped with new technology and the modified XT formula, begin another siege on the occupants of the Zombie Rehab. Mindless and merciless, they come.The World Humanitarian Society’s plans for population control have just begun.After escaping the occurrence at WHS Facility 111, the Zombie Day Care, Henry Bawkula and his fiancé’, Tori, find themselves under the thumb of the WHS once again, just a few miles down the road.Meanwhile, in Washington DC, two powerful men of the WHS begin to pull the strings of the latest advancement of the XT Formula and initiate another diabolical attack on the lives of those who know too much. However, the WHS isn’t without its enemies. From an undisclosed location, another handful of heroes arise and attempt to stop the WHS’s from creating a new world order with another Zombie Outbreak. And the zombies, equipped with new technology and the modified XT formula, begin another siege on the occupants of the Zombie Rehab. Mindless and merciless, they come.

Blue Castaway is a fictional account of a man, that must depart his normal lifestyle to fulfill the curse placed upon him after accidentally ending the life of a witch. He discovers a possible end to the curse when he encounters a Midwestern girl. She is in possession of a jigsaw puzzle with extraordinary, supernatural properties that used to belong to the witch. It's not what he expected at all.Blue Castaway is a fictional account of a man, Paul Porter, who after a drunken night of partying, accidentally ends the life of a witch. He must depart his normal lifestyle to fulfill the curse placed upon him with her dying breath. As part of the curse, she conjures a spell which scatters all of her personel effects throughout the United states and tasks him with returning them to her final resting place. Each of her belongings has its own spell that requires the object to be fed on a regular basis. Paul must find them before they can take their toll on their new owners. He discovers a possible end to the curse when he encounters a Midwestern girl by the name of Helen Wagner. She is in possession of a jigsaw puzzle with extraordinary, supernatural properties that used to belong to the witch. It ultimately changes both his and Helen's lives forever. Blue Castaway is the second of three novels centered around jigsaw puzzles with unusual and distinctly different supernatural properties, (the others being White Crest and Red Clover).

This short story examines the mind and history of Marian, whose mind will not allow her to live completely in the present.Over five hundred years since the start of the Space Age and humanity has still not yet broken out of the prison of the solar system. Generation ships have been sent to nearby star systems, but the sublight speeds involved means that nobody has returned yet. Warp drives and worm holes have been around for centuries, although only in science fiction. Running short on resources in the solar system–even Saturn's rings have been strip-mined–humanity needs some divine intervention. Instead, they get Boris S. Vladnitz, a down on his luck captain of a battered spaceship. Follow along with Captain Vladnitz and his crew of wildcatters on board the Arkhangel as they eke out a living among the snowballs and rocks of the Kuiper Belt and finally get the chance of humanity's lifetime, if they survive the trip–and each other.Saint Vladnitz is the first story in the Borgia Trajectory, a series set in the same universe as the Eichi Testaments, back when the Galactic Empire wasn't even a glimmer in the eyes of the corporations that ruled Earth.

A cross country train trip proves to be the most dangerous trip Rachel Payne has ever taken. Plagued by nightmares and unable to eat or sleep, she begins to feel like she's losing her mind. Then, she and six other passengers become trapped in a train car by a sadistic, demon-possessed young man. Rachel is faced with betrayal and death as the demon threatens to murder them all.33 year-old Rachel Payne is on her way to start a life new. Divorced, childless, and penniless, Rachel has nothing to show for her life, and nothing to lose. The life she has been living never felt right to her. She went to college, got a job, got married, had a house and cars, tried to have children but couldn't. While she tried to fit the mold of a “normal” woman in society, she always felt there was something else out there, waiting for her.The 51 hour train route from Chicago to San Francisco proves to be the most dangerous trip she’s ever taken. Plagued by nightmares and unable to eat or sleep, she begins to feel like she's losing her mind. Then, she and six other passengers become trapped in a train car by a sadistic, demon-possessed young man. Rachel is faced with betrayal and death as the demon exposes the passengers' deadly sins and threatens to murder them all. Armed with only an innate ability to identify the demon for what it is, Rachel endures the first of many horrors that will inevitably consume her life.

When 7 foster kids get snowed in without their houseparent one night, they all begin to discover that the world isn't what they've been taught, and that life is much more unique and puzzle-like than they thought.Charlotte Jones is moved to the Willow Hill Group Home, located in the heart of Bozeman, Montana. She locks herself in a room with 5 other foster children and her brother, Clark. They quickly begin to learn more about each other, and the lies that reside within the group home.